'Beautiful World' Found in Hebrew
Opinion
I believe I have found a little of Sally Rooney’s ‘Beautiful World’ - in Hebrew!
It is astounding that no-one involved in the furore over the Irish novelist’s new book and her decision to refuse a Hebrew edition has examined her choice of opening epigraph - for therein lies the clue.
It is a quotation from ‘My Vocation’, an essay in Italian writer, Natalia Ginzburg’s collection, ‘The Little Virtues’ and - yes! - the volume is available in Hebrew translation. The publisher/distributor is Pashoshim.com, an Israeli company dealing in books, toys and board games.
In her essay Ginzburg says:
When I write something I usually think it is very important and that I am a very fine writer. I think this happens to everyone. But there is one corner of my mind in which I know very well what I am, which is a small, a very small writer. I swear I know it. But that doesn’t matter much to me.
Indeed, born of a Catholic mother and a Jewish father then reared as an atheist and devout anti-fascist, Ginzburg was a deeply troubled soul who suffered many extraordinary personal travails. She converted to Catholicism while nonetheless viewing herself as Jewish and most earnestly considered the figure of Jesus Christ to be the embodiment of the eternally persecuted Jew.
Ginzburg died in 1991 and I am unsure whether she ever visited Israel. But as she served as an independent far left-wing deputy in the Italian parliament, it is unsurprising to read her following remarks and so understand why Rooney chose the passage from ‘My Vocation’ to open her own story.
When someone speaks about Israel with admiration, I feel that I’m on the other side. At a certain point, perhaps late, I understood that the Arabs are poor peasants and shepherds. I know very few things about myself, but I know with absolute certainty that I don’t want to remain on the side of those who use arms, money and culture to oppress peasants and shepherds.
Our instinct urges us either from one side or the other. But in truth it is perhaps impossible today to remain on one side or the other. People and peoples are undergoing rapid and horrible transformations. The only choice possible for us is to be on the side of those who die or suffer unjustly.
NATALIE WOOD
22 OCTOBER 2021